The following abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the ensuing description of the prior art and the present invention.
IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem
IP Internet Protocol
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
LAN Local Area Network
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
MMS Multimedia Message Service
MS Messaging/Traffic Server
MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number
SMS Short Message Service
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
URL Uniform Resource Locator
XML Extensible Markup Language
WAN Wide Area Network
In the communications field, a network upon receiving a message such as a MMS, IMS, SMS or email etc. . . . often determines how to process/forward the message by accessing a subscriber profile which contains information regarding message authorization preferences and/or handling preferences (i.e., forward destination, storage preference, blocking preference). For instance, a subscriber may want emails which are sent to them to be forwarded to one email address on a certain day of the week and forwarded to another email address on another day of the week and they would have this handling preference stored in their subscriber profile. Or, the subscriber may want to block an email from being forwarded to them that was sent by a certain person and they would have this blocking preference stored in their subscriber profile. To enable these preferences, the network uses a multi-site common directory which stores the subscriber profiles for all of their subscribers. The multi-site common directory is made-up of many individual common directories where one common directory typically supports one metropolitan area and another common directory supports another metropolitan area and so on . . . . The individual common directories are connected to one another via IP links on a WAN. Examples of two prior art multi-site common directories 100 and 200 are discussed next with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), there is a block diagram illustrating one prior art implementation of a multi-site common directory 100 where each common directory 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d (shown at sites A, B, C and D) has their own subscriber database 104 which stores the subscriber profiles for all of the network's subscribers. One disadvantage of this particular implementation is that each common directory 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d needs to store and index a large number of subscriber profiles within their particular database 104. Another disadvantage is that each common directory 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d utilizes a lot of bandwidth on the IP links in the WAN to replicate all of the subscriber data in the other databases 104 (i.e., each database 104 contains a current copy of the subscriber profiles for everyone of the network's subscribers).
Referring to FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART), there is a block diagram illustrating another prior art implementation of a multi-site common directory 200 where a single centralized subscriber database 204 is accessed by all of the common directories 202a, 202b, 202c and 202d (shown at sites A, B, C and D) (note: the common directory 202a contains the centralized subscriber database 204 in this example). An advantage of this particular implementation is that not all of the common directories 202b, 202c and 202d need to have and maintain subscriber databases that store and replicate all of the subscriber profiles (see FIG. 1). However, a disadvantage of this particular implementation is that large broadband connections are required between the common directory 202a which has the centralized subscriber database 204 and the common directories 202b, 202c and 202d. Another disadvantage is that it can take additional time for the remote common directories 202b, 202c and 202d to access the centralized subscriber database 204 (note: networks can use a combination of the two different multi-site directories 100 and 200 but this combination would still have the aforementioned drawbacks). These problems and other problems are satisfied by the present invention.